Posted by
TampaDoc on Wednesday, October 07, 2009 6:35:00 PM
This is the true story of the first ships built by the American navy and especially of the one ship still in active duty today, “Old Ironsides” The USS Constitution.
Launched in 1797, Constitution was one of the six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794 Constitution; President; United States, Congress, Constellation and Chesapeake. The USS Constitution although it served with distinction in the Quasi War and the First Barbary War including the battle of Tripoli Harbor, she is most remembered for the War of 1812 in which she earned the name “Old Ironsides” when she defeated HMS Guerriere while sustaining almost no damage from the British Frigate. During the war of 1812 she also defeated four other British war ship including HMS Java, HMS Pictou, HMS Cyane and HMS Levant with the later two being defeated solo in the same battle.
Although they all distinguished themselves, they all awaited various fates. The USS Chesapeake was considered unlucky from the start. Being the smallest of these ships and the runt of the litter. She was captured by the British in 1806 and served out her time as a British vessel. The Constellation had a long and distinguished career and was put to rest in 1853. The United States had a remarkable history serving in the Quasi War, both Barbary Wars and on both sides of the Civil war before she was put to rest in 1862. The USS President was misguided and hit bottom in New York Harbor in 1814 and was later easily captured. The USS Congress served through the second Barbary war at which time she was unfit for duty; she was unceremoniously broken up in 1835.
Built in an era when a wooden ship had an expected service life of ten to fifteen years, Constitution was now thirty-one years old. A routine order for surveys of ships held in ordinary was requested by the Secretary of the Navy John Branch; the commandant of the Charlestown Navy Yard, Charles Morris, estimated a repair cost of over $157,000. On 14 September 1830, an article appeared in the Boston Advertiser that erroneously claimed the Navy intended to scrap Constitution. Two days later, Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem "Old Ironsides" was published in the same paper and later all over the country, igniting public indignation and inciting efforts to save "Old Ironsides" from the scrap yard. Secretary Branch approved the costs, and she began a leisurely repair period while awaiting completion of the dry dock then under construction at the yard. Today, she is the oldest active duty commissioned ship in the world.
Oh, and the moral of this story? The President was misguided and ended up on the other team, The Congress became worn out and unfit for duty, but the Constitution survives to this day. I find this all very ironic, don’t you?